Heart Attack Teacher
Location: Tipp City, Ohio Date: May 9, 1988 Story Shortly before 8am on May 9th, 1988 in the local high school in the small town of Tipp City, Ohio, teacher Ralph Suiter was in the cafeteria doing study hall for the day. Seventeen-year-old student Tess Donour was coming to get her attending sheet out when surprisingly, Ralph suddenly collapsed on the floor. Tess, who watched in horror, quickly ran to the principal's office and told the secretary that Ralph collapsed. As the secretary told her to get health teacher Jim Judy and called 911, teacher Irvin Collins, who is Ralph's best friend, overheard what was happening and ran to help, suspecting it was more than just fainting. When he got to the cafeteria, he saw that Ralph was turning blue, his eyes were plowed over, and he was drooling in his mouth. Collins used a tissue to clean the drool out of his mouth and checked his pulse. He found that Ralph had no pulse. He then ordered every student nearby to leave the cafeteria so they wouldn't be around Ralph. A call went out to the town's volunteer Emergency Rescue Unit at 7:59am. Tess ran in the hall and got Judy, who was a certified CPR instructor. He immediately ran to the cafeteria, suspecting that Ralph may have suffered a coronary because of the risk factors he had for a heart attack since he didn't exercise, was a heavy smoker, and the right age for it. "i had in the back of my mind that it might be a coronary just because of the risk factors he didn't exercise he was a smoker, plus his age that i knew that, you know, it just might be a heart attack." Once Judy arrived, he helped Collins to do CPR on Ralph. Tess got in and saw that Collins was doing chest compressions and Judy was doing mouth-to-mouth. But the other teachers were getting all the students out of the cafeteria. Tess stood back and watched. She recalls, "I thought it was hopeless because it just seemed like it took forever for the rescue squad to get there." As volunteer rescue workers went to the station to get their vehicles and headed to the scene, Collins and Judy continued to do CPR on Ralph. Paramedic Gary Jackson recalled, "For some reason, there were alarm bells going off in my mind because I knew this call was going to be a bad one. You have a few minutes to get oxygen into your system before brain damage sets in." "Ralph was not blinking his eyes and he had no pulse. For all practical purposes, he was gone. But we just felt like we could not give up because he was a very close friend," Collins stated. As Jackson and EMT Todd Stocker arrived at the school they graduated from less than 8 years earlier, thoughts that were going through Stocker's mind were "I don't know who this person is yet, and I am really afraid to find out." They were surprised to find that the victim was their old teacher. "I walked into the cafeteria and I was shocked when I saw who they were doing CPR on. I mean, I recognized Mr. Suiter, having been a former student of his in sophomore chemistry class. He was a friendly teacher, a good teacher, and if I had a specific problem, he was more than willing to stay after class or after school to help me out with it," Jackson stated. Immediately, the rescue workers took over treatment from Collins and Judy. As they shocked Ralph with a defibrillator at least three times, he didn't respond to any of the shocks. Stocker recalled, "I was scared because I haven't been on that many cardiac arrests." He also said, "I was just amazed that this teacher who I had was lying here dead on the floor." Jackson recalled, "I was very distraught and frustrated when the first three initial shocks didn't work. they teach you in class if you're gonna convert someone you will usually do it on the first or second shock." As Collins and Judy watched, Jackson administered the cardiac drugs into Ralph's systems as Stocker performed chest compressions on him. The rescue workers shocked him one last time in the maximum wattage. Jackson stated, "I was handed the initial cardiac drugs. I administered those drugs per protocols, with no change in the electrical activity of the heart." "at this point, I decided we needed to shock him one more time at maximum wattage and load and go to the hospital regardless of what we got." He got a heartbeat and pulse and everyone was relieved, but he was still unconscious. As they loaded him up in the ambulance, everyone, especially Judy, wondered whether or not their efforts were enough to save him from brain damage and lack of oxygen during his heart attack. "He was in a coma, and it was at that point that I was concerned as to whether we had been effective in giving CPR. Because in the back of your mind you're always thinking, "Well maybe we just didn't do an effective enough job, we didn't get enough oxygen to the brain, and we were afraid he might have suffered brain damage,'" said Judy. After 20 minutes without a heartbeat, Ralph entered the hospital in critical condition. His chances for a full recovery were slim. Doctors tried to prepare his wife, Diane, for the worst. After hearing that there is a chance he will be comatose for the rest of his life, she felt numb. Determined that he was fighting to get out of his coma, she stood by his side. Perhaps due to her faithful support, he came out of the coma suffering only temporary memory loss. After undergoing heart bypass surgery, he returned to teaching that same fall. Since then, he changed his lifestyle. He quit smoking, starting exercising more often, and relaxing a lot. Ralph won't forget his coworkers, Collins and Judy, and former students, Jackson and Stocker, who were there to save him. "It's very difficult to put in the words how you feel about people who save your life. I feel very close to them. I also feel very close to the people who supported me in the school after the incident," Ralph stated. Jackson and Stocker felt great to play a small part to save Ralph. "I was so happy that I came back from having him as a teacher, gave him all the trouble that I did, and then ended up saving his life. So it was amazing," Stocker admitted. Diane says that knowing CPR is one of the most important things that anyone can do for themselves or anybody else around them as it can save lives. "I can't imagine being without Ralph. I can't imagine our family without him: the children and myself," she admitted. Ralph stated, "It made me realize the abilities that I have and it has given me time that I think I will make very good use of. Or at least I will try to and I'm very pleased to have that time." Category:1988 Category:Ohio Category:Heart Attacks Category:Cardiac Arrest Category:School